Yesterday we were talking about one of the best ways to think about the Bible, in terms

of the words that Moses used and the Lord Jesus used, it is the mouth of God. Paul thought

about it that way too, he said, that it was the God-breathed word.

And you know, when Paul speaks that way, he's really saying to us, not that the Bible is inspiring,

although in many parts it is inspiring, but rather that God has spoken to us, that his words are carried to us by the Holy Spirit.

And as God says to Jeremiah, he has put his words into the mouths of those who wrote the scriptures

in order that we may hear God's voice.

So although the Bible was written by different men at different times,

they were carried along, as Peter says, by the Holy Spirit.

And that's why John Calvin says in his institutes

that actually we should give the scriptures the same reverence we give to God,

not because the scriptures are God,

but because the scriptures are the mouth of God, the Word of God.

And as God's word, it's full of God's promises,

it directs us in God's will,

and most of all, it shows us God's promises, it directs us in God's will, and most of all it shows us God's Son.

It's given to us chiefly in order to make us like Jesus.

I've spoken before about the way in which Isaiah says morning by morning he listened to the voice of his Heavenly

Father and treasured up his Father's words.

And if you read the Gospels, it's very striking that although Jesus never had a Bible

of his own, it's very clear that he had treasured up scripture, and my own conviction is that he probably

knew the whole of the Old Testament off by heart.

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